FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238  
239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   >>   >|  
enly in the history of Buddhism as something exotic, grafted adroitly on the parent trunk but sometimes overgrowing it.[552] Avalokita is also connected with Amitabha's paradise. His figure, though its origin is not clear, assumes distinct and conspicuous proportions in India at a fairly early date. There appears to be no reason for associating him specially with Central Asia. On the other hand later works describe him as the spiritual son or reflex of Amitabha. This certainly recalls the Iranian idea of the Fravashi defined as "a spiritual being conceived as a part of a man's personality but existing before he is born and in independence of him: it can also belong to divine beings."[553] Although India offers in abundance both divine incarnations and explanations thereof yet none of these describe the relationship between a Dhyani Buddha and his Boddhisattva so well as the Zoroastrian doctrine of the Fravashi. S. Levi has suggested that the Bodhisattva Manjusri is of Tokharian origin.[554] His worship at Wu-tai-shan in Shan-si is ancient and later Indian tradition connected him with China. Local traditions also connect him with Nepal, Tibet, and Khotan, and he is sometimes represented as the first teacher of civilization or religion. But although his Central Asian origin is eminently probable, I do not at present see any clear proof of it. The case of the Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha[555] is similar. He appears to have been known but not prominent in India in the fourth century A.D.: by the seventh century if not earlier his cult was flourishing in China and subsequently he became in the Far East a popular deity second only to Kuan-yin. This popularity was connected with his gradual transformation into a god of the dead. It is also certain that he was known in Central Asia[556] but whether he first became important there or in China is hard to decide. The devotion of the Chinese to their dead suggests that it was among them that he acquired his great position, but his role as a guide to the next world has a parallel in the similar benevolent activity of the Zoroastrian angel Srosh. One of Central Asia's clearest titles to importance in the history of the East is that it was the earliest and on the whole the principal source of Chinese Buddhism, to which I now turn. Somewhat later, teachers also came to China by sea and still later, under the Yuan dynasty, Lamaism was introduced direct from Tibet. But from at leas
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238  
239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Central

 

origin

 
connected
 

appears

 
Bodhisattva
 

describe

 

spiritual

 
Zoroastrian
 

Fravashi

 

Chinese


century

 

Amitabha

 

divine

 
Buddhism
 

history

 

similar

 
popularity
 

flourishing

 

gradual

 

subsequently


popular
 

Kshitigarbha

 
present
 
eminently
 

probable

 
seventh
 

fourth

 

transformation

 

prominent

 

earlier


acquired

 

principal

 

source

 
earliest
 

importance

 

clearest

 

titles

 

Somewhat

 

Lamaism

 

dynasty


introduced

 

direct

 
teachers
 

activity

 

decide

 

devotion

 

important

 

suggests

 

parallel

 
benevolent